Quotables.

"It has to be apocryphal. It's nonsense. Of course, we...

October 25, 1999

"It has to be apocryphal. It's nonsense. Of course, we never rejected people for being too flaky."

--Dorothy Healey, who headed the Southern California Communist Party during the 1940s, on author Edmund Morris' claim that, during his acting days, Ronald Reagan tried to join the party but was turned down because he was "a flake."

"I don't think the Ramseys are bad people--but we'll never know."

--Kathy Minter, a neighbor of John and Patsy Ramsey, after Boulder County District Atty. Alex Hunter said there was not enough evidence to bring charges against anyone for the 1996 murder of the Ramseys' 6-year-old daughter, JonBenet.

"Typically, the eighth year of any presidency is not very productive. Theoretically, there is hope of some accomplishments over the next 14 months, but in the 40 years I've watched politics, I have never seen the depth of the animosity the Congress has for this president, and vice versa."

--Presidential scholar Stephen Hess of The Brookings Institution, after the Senate's defeat of the Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty soured hopes of compromise on other matters.